How we curate

First, let’s just get this out of the way: we’re not paleo extremists. Or anything extremist. We’ve seen too many people become miserable (and fat) on the diet roller coaster, going through cycles of deprivation and binging, never finding a place of balance, weeping over sad lettuce leaves while craving cupcakes. We are out to make you feel happy and healthy and balanced, not miserable and deprived.

As such, we’ve selected foods that are incredibly delicious, in addition to being incredibly healthy. These foods are not just “good if you’re on a diet,” they’re just really really good. We’ve spent years searching far and wide for the most amazing food experiences, all of which inform our curation. We’ve tasted, sampled, licked, slurped, gorged, sucked (and occasionally spit out) all manner of foodstuffs, and we’re thrilled to bring you only highly select foods that meet our discriminating standards all around.

What are our standards?

Because we’re not extremists, we’re not going to take an all-or-nothing position on nutrition. We’ve been known to enjoy an amazing crusty hunk of well-buttered sourdough on occasion, or a perfect chocolate chip cookie, hot and gooey from the oven. But most of the time, we eat our own version of primal / ancestral, and we love every marrow-dripping minute of it. Here are the guiding principles that we strive for at Barefoot Provisions.

Here’s what we gravitate towards

real food

organic

nutrient dense

free range

artisanal

sustainable

made with love

delicious

healthy fats

organic

Here’s what we avoid

Refined Carbs

Grains

Refined Sugars

High-fructose Corn Syrup

Additives

Gluten

GMO's

Pesticides

Hormones

Preservatives

Here’s what our approach looks like

We’ve seen “paleo”-labeled products out there that contain ingredients as diverse as rice bran syrup, sunflower oil, hydrolyzed whey protein, refined cane sugar, quinoa, and agave. And we’ve also eaten a lot of “paleo” products that were just plain nasty — made by people who know more about “paleo” eating than they do about amazing food. The stuff we’re bringing you isn’t all going to be strictest paleo, but it’ll all be primally delicious.

For example, take our jerky store. Some of our jerkies are 100% grass-fed and pastured. Some are organic, and some are “natural,” without hormones or antibiotics. Some have no sweeteners at all, some have a bit of sweetener. Some have a little soy sauce, some a little tamari. Some are “Whole 30” compatible, some aren’t. But all of it is amazingly delicious, and all of it is made by people on a journey to bring you the tastiest, most sustainably-produced jerky they possibly can. Unless you’ve got serious allergies or health problems, a little soy sauce or tamari or sugar is not going to hurt you. And everything we offer is going to be healthier for you and tastier than the jerky you’ll find at a mainstream grocery store. We try to eat as clean as we can whenever we can, and we bring that sensibility to you. We list all our ingredients, so you can decide what your body wants.

Crucially, paleo / primal / ancestral is not a diet. It’s a reframing of how to live (and therefore eat). It will take years of learning and growth to shed the habits of the Standard American Diet and get to a healthy place. We’re here to make the journey a delicious one.